ICLEI World Congress 2012 Program

The World Congress 2012 program was shaped by and reflected the activities of our Members and our partners around the world.

Closely linked to the Rio+20 Conference, participants learned from inspirational speakers and city cases about cutting-edge integrated solutions to the challenges we face, and had the opportunity to present their own stories and experiences.

Click on the links to the right to download the program structure and detailed program overview.

The World Congress...

Connected Leaders

The Congress was the place to be to connect with Mayors, Governors, Ministers and other elected officials from cities around the world. Our special Mayors day on Sun 17 June included:

World Mayors Council on Climate Change assembly: The Council discussed the future role and mandate of local government political contributions to the sustainability debate.

Mayoral lunch hosted by the Mayor of Belo Horizonte: An opportunity to network with all attending Mayors.

Mayors' strategy session on local governance for sustainable development: An open plenary panel session to discuss how Mayors can build on previous and current successes to lead the way in reversing global environmental trends.

Acted as a gateway to Solutions

The Congress program exposed delegates to a wide variety of solutions to the local sustainability challenges they face.

Integrated Solutions: How do we create Smart, Innovative and Inclusive Cities using the latest thinking and technologies? In these sessions, state of the art, holistic and innovative solutions to urban challenges were presented by technical providers, businesses and local government representatives. A panel of experts reviewed and discussed the potential and implementation of these solutions.

Achieving our Visions parallel sessions: From cities with integrated climate resilience strategies, to those leading the way in developing strategies for ensuring food security, to debates over the Green Urban Economy, these parallel sessions informed, inspired and provided an opportunity for our Members and partners to showcase their work.

Accelerated action

By bringing together local governments with researchers, experts and international organizations, the World Congress created spaces for new agendas of action to be developed:

Working together in common groups, Sun 17 June. These sessions brought together ICLEI Members and partners in communities of common interest to work on specific issues and form new ICLEI communities for common action. Groups included Eco-Cities, City food systems and Knowledge cities.

Message to Rio: Local governments and their partners in youth and business delivered a strong message from the World Congress to Rio: demonstrating the action being taken and demanding more than words from the national leaders.